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I’ve flown quite a few Qatar Airways flights in the past 7 months so I feel like I’m getting a good idea of what sort of service you can expect on board and what kind of cabins the airline offers. While the service is rarely anything other than very good and while the food and drink are usually pretty good too, there are noticeable differences in the quality of the Business Class cabins that the airline offers.
The difference in cabin quality is usually down to the age of the aircraft the airline offers and, if you’re planning to splash out on a Qatar Airways Business Class flight any time soon, you would be well advised to know what aircraft and cabin will be offered on the route(s) you want to fly.
For a lot of destinations Qatar Airways offers just one type of aircraft so you don’t really have a choice…..but knowing what aircraft you’ll be flying may help you decide if the fare you’re being quoted is worth it or not.
Which Are The Best Qatar Airways Business Class Cabins?
The very best Business Class cabin is almost certainly the new QSuites cabin that Qatar Airways is currently retrofitting to its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft:
But the problem with the QSuite is that, as the airline is only refitting one aircraft a month with the new product, you’re unlikely to be seeing it appear on most routes any time soon.
At the time of writing the QSuite is offered on one or two of the 777-300ER aircraft that operate between London and Doha and we know that Paris and New York will be the next cities to get aircraft offering QSuites (no start dates for QSuite service to these cities have been provided) – but that’s it. For the time being all other cities served by Qatar Airways 777 aircraft will still offer the older Business Class seats.
As flights offering the new QSuites are still quite hard to find I’m going to ignore that product and concentrate on cabins you’ll find very easily.
The best Qatar Airways Business Class cabins are found on the Airbus A380, the Airbus A350 and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
While there are some subtle differences between the seats on each of those three aircraft, essentially this is what they look like:
Qatar Airways 787 Dreamliner Business Class
Annoyingly the A350 and the A380 are the only two long haul Qatar Airways aircraft I have yet to try out in Business Class (I’ve tried out the A380 First Class cabin)….but I have flown on the Dreamliner a few times (full review here) and I can confirm that it’s very good indeed.
No one booking this seat is going to be disappointed with what they find when they get aboard.
With that in mind the routes that offer these aircraft will also offer you the best value for money when booking Qatar Airways Business Class.
Which Routes Offer The Qatar Airways A380, A350 and the 787 Dreamliner?
Note: At the time of writing this information is correct and up to date but please check before you book as schedules and aircraft change regularly.
Qatar Airways A380 Routes From Doha
- Guanghzou (China)
- London Heathrow
- Melbourne
- Paris CDG
- Sydney
Qatar Airways A380 Business Class Bar – definitely one of the cabin highlights
As you can see Qatar Airways doesn’t fly its A380 to all that many destinations…and that’s because it doesn’t have all that many of them.
Also, please be aware that the airline will fly other aircraft as well as the A380 to some of these destinations (e.g London) so don’t assume that all flight offer then same aircraft.
Main Qatar Airways A350 Routes From Doha
- Adelaide
- Barcelona
- Boston
- Brussels
- Frankfurt
- Geneva
- Madrid
- Munich
- New York JFK
- Paris CDG
- Philadelphia
- Singapore
- Tokyo Haneda
- Vienna
- Zurich
Qatar Airways A350 – image courtesy of Qatar Airways
Over recent months Qatar Airways has been increasing the number of cities to which it flies the A350 (on of my favourite aircraft) but things could be about to slow down. The airline recently cancelled orders for 4 A350s so I’m not expecting to see this list grow any time soon.
Be aware that the airline will fly other aircraft as well as the A350 to some of these destinations (e.g Paris & London) so don’t assume that all flight offer then same aircraft.
Main Qatar Airways 787 Dreamliner Routes From Doha
- Bali
- Bangkok
- Barcelona
- Birmingham (UK)
- Cape Town
- Copenhagen
- Dublin
- Edinburgh
- Helsinki
- Hong Kong
- Johannesburg
- Kuala Lumpur
- London Heathrow
- Manchester (UK)
- Nice
- Oslo
- Phuket
- Rome
- Stockholm
- Vienna
Qatar Airways 787 Dreamliner Business Class Cabin
Be aware that the airline will fly other aircraft as well as the Dreamliner to some of these destinations and some of those aircraft offer cabins that are nowhere near as good as the Dreamliner (e.g the A340 on the Kuala Lumpur route) – always check which aircraft your specific flights are offering.
How About The Other Aircraft Qatar Airways Offers?
I’ve already reviewed the following Business Class cabins on Traveling For Miles:
- Boeing 777
- Airbus A340/A330 (no noticable difference between the two aircraft cabins)
- Airbus A320
Despite the fact that the A320 isn’t even a widebody aircraft, the ones I would probably do my best to avoid would probably be the A330 & A340 aircraft.
The current 777 Business Class cabin isn’t actually all that bad (I spent over 16 hours in it when I flew between Auckland and Doha) but it certainly isn’t one of the newest:
Qatar Airways 777 Business Class Cabin
The A330 and A340 Business Class cabins don’t offer much space for your feet when the seat is in bed mode (unless you’re in row 1) so I’m definitely not a fan.
Qatar Airways A340 Business Class footwell
List Of Main Qatar Airways Routes With The Aircraft Used
The following list isn’t a comprehensive list of all the routes Qatar Airways flys but it does show what I think are the main routes the airline offers.
You can use this list to see what aircraft are used to the destinations you’re interested and, hopefully, you can use it to avoid the less optimal Qatar Airways Business Class cabins too.
| CITY | AIRPORT | AIRCRAFT USED | ||||
| AFRICA | ||||||
| South Africa | Cape Town | CPT | 787 | |||
| South Africa | Johannesburg | JNB | 777 | 787 | ||
| ASIA | ||||||
| China | Beijing | PEK | 777 | |||
| China | Chengdu | CTU | A330 | |||
| China | Gunaghzou | CAN | A380 | |||
| China | Hong Kong | HKG | 787 | |||
| China | Shanghai | PVG | 777 | |||
| India | Mumbai | BOM | 777 | |||
| India | New Delhi | DEL | 787 | |||
| Indonesia | Bali | DPS | 777 | A330 | 787 | |
| Japan | Tokyo – Haneda | HND | A350 | |||
| Japan | Tokyo – Narita | NRT | 777 | |||
| Malaysia | Kuala Lumpur | KUL | A340 | 787 | 777 | |
| Maldives | Male | MLE | A330 | |||
| Philippines | Manila | MNL | 777 | |||
| Singapore | Singapore | SIN | A350 | |||
| South Korea | Seoul | ICN | 777 | |||
| Thailand | Bangkok | BKK | 777 | 787 | ||
| Thailand | Phuket | HKT | 787 | |||
| Vietnam | Ho Chi Minh City | SGN | A330 | |||
| EUROPE | ||||||
| Austria | Vienna | VIE | A350 | 787 | ||
| Belgium | Brussels | BRU | A350 | |||
| Czech Republic | Prague | PRG | A320 | |||
| Denmark | Copenhagen | CPH | 787 | |||
| Finland | Helsinki | HEL | 787 | |||
| France | Nice | NCE | 787 | |||
| France | Paris CDG | CDG | 777 | A380 | A350 | |
| Germany | Berlin | TXL | A330 | |||
| Germany | Frankfurt | FRA | A350 | |||
| Germany | Munich | MUC | A350 | |||
| Ireland | Dublin | DUB | 787 | |||
| Italy | Milan Malpensa | MXP | A330 | |||
| Italy | Pisa | PSA | A320 | |||
| Italy | Rome | FCO | 787 | |||
| Italy | Venice | VCE | A330 | |||
| Netherlands | Amsterdam | AMS | 777 | |||
| Norway | Oslo | OSL | 787 | |||
| Poland | Warsaw | WAW | A330 | |||
| Russia | Moscow Domodedovo | DME | A320 | A321 | ||
| Spain | Barcelona | BCN | A350 | 787 | ||
| Spain | Madrid | MAD | A350 | |||
| Sweden | Stockholm | ARN | 787 | |||
| Switzerland | Geneva | GVA | A350 | |||
| Switzerland | Zurich | ZRH | A350 | |||
| UK | Birmingham | BHX | 787 | |||
| UK | Edinburgh | EDI | 787 | |||
| UK | London Heathrow | LHR | 777 | A380 | A350 | 787 |
| UK | Manchester | MAN | 787 | |||
| NORTH AMERICA | ||||||
| Canada | Montreal | YUL | 777 | |||
| USA | Atlanta | ATL | 777 | |||
| USA | Boston | BOS | A350 | |||
| USA | Chicago | ORD | 777 | |||
| USA | Dallas Fort Worth | DFW | 777 | |||
| USA | Houston | IAH | 777 | |||
| USA | Los Angeles | LAX | 777LR | |||
| USA | Miami | MIA | 777 | |||
| USA | New York JFK | JFK | A350 | 777 | ||
| USA | Philadelphia | PHL | A350 | |||
| USA | Washington DC | IAD | 777 | |||
| OCEANIA | ||||||
| Australia | Adelaide | ADL | A350 | |||
| Australia | Melbourne | MEL | A380 | |||
| Australia | Perth | PER | 777 | |||
| Australia | Sydney | SYD | A380 | |||
| New Zealand | Auckland | AKL | 777 | |||
| SOUTH AMERICA | ||||||
| Argentina | Buenos Aires | EZE | 777 | |||
| Brasil | Sao Paulo | GRU | 777 | |||
250,000 miles on QR since January.
I’ve flown A380 to BKK twice this year.
If you are stuck with an A340 or an A330, make sure you get an aisle.
777’s are fine, even window, because aisle seats, when bed is fully extended slope downwards so easy to step over without disturbing your seat mate, if your Platinum 9 times out of 10 they will keep seat next to you empty if not a full flight. But can’t wait for Q Suites!
Thanks for your summary, very good.
[…] Last week I ran a post in which I went through the various Business Class cabins that Qatar Airways … – some are a lot better than others – so you should use this to check which aircraft you think you would prefer to fly. […]